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Simpson, Matthew (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This interview was conducted in Simpson's office. 2/29/1984
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- 2020-11-13
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- SUBJECT BIO - Matthew Simpson was a local attorney whose firm represented the Bixby companies and other local firms and governments. Simpson's mother brought him to Long Beach in 1914 and he graduated from Poly High School before going to Stanford University where he earned undergraduate and law degrees. While he was still in school, he began working for the law firm of Denio and Hart. After he passed the bar exam, he joined the firm and practiced there until he retired. In this single interview, he discusses several legal issues that had significant impacts on Long Beach including subsidence and the tidelands controversy. TOPICS - family background; living arrangements; city landscape and development; PE and public transportation in Long Beach; high school and college; wife; work experiences while in college; Craig's Shipyard; legal proceediDenio and Hart; business locations and law partners; Judge Ralph Clock; Bixby Land Company; Alamitos Land Company; John F; Craig and Craig's Shipbuilding; the Depression; land subdivisions and real estate busts inBixby Land Company; Jotham Bixby Company; Jotham Bixby; Llewellyn Bixby; representing C;J; Kubach and Company against the City of Long Beach; representing Craig's Shipbuilding in subsidence case against Signal HilJotham Bixby Company; property values in Long Beach; property condemnation and inverse condemnation; subsidence; and restoration of downtown Long Beach;
- *** File: cbmsimpson1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-2:51)... Brief introduction. Simpson was born in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1900. He moved to Long Beach with his mother in 1914 to be near his grandmother, Abigail Ann Henshaw, a resident of Long Beach since before the turn of the century. Simpson attended Poly High School between 1914 and 1917. (2:51-6:35)... When they arrived in Long Beach in 1914, Simpson and his mother moved into the Nautilus Apartments located on 9th Street near American Avenue [Long Beach Boulevard]. At that time, PE tracks ran down the center of the street of American Avenue in a "raised, unpaved condition." All of the transportation from Los Angeles to Long Beach was covered by the PE. The Pike was a busy place in those days and practically everyone road the train to get there and to downtown Long Beach. Streetcar stations were located at 7th Street, Magnolia, and near the ocean. The streets around First and Broadway were once the right-of-ways for the streetcars, which is why they have an odd shape. (6:35-9:17)... Prior to moving to Long Beach, Simpson and his family lived in Los Angeles for two years. His parents met while attending college at the University of Kansas. They married after they graduated and his mother became a housewife. Simpson states, "In 1910, what could a woman find to do there [Los Angeles] to earn a living." His mother worked as a social hostess in an apartment/hotel until his father died. A year later his older brother died, at which point Simpson and his mother moved in with his aunt. When they moved to Long Beach, Simpson's mother began studying Christian Science. They supported themselves with his father's life insurance indemnity and profits from the sale of their home in Los Angeles. (9:17-11:01)... One of Simpson's favorite teachers at Poly High School was Kathleen Harnett. Simpson jokingly talks about the social distinctions in high school, indicating that he was part of the "common herd" while his wife was part of the "glamour group." As a result, they did not socialize with each other while in high school. His grandmother and his wife's parents were neighbors and friends, which is how they met. At the time, he was a student at Stanford University. (11:01-13:19)... Simpson was born into an experienced legal family and his grandfather was a judge in Kansas. Simpson's parents expected for him to pursue a career in law. In 1915, he and his mother attended the San Francisco Exposition. While in San Francisco, they visited the UC Berkeley and Stanford University campuses, at which time his mother decided he would attend Stanford after he graduated from high school. The Stanfords were still funding the university and Simpson did not have to pay tuition. Even after the campus began collecting tuition from new students, the university permitted the non-tuition students to continue their programs without paying any fees. Simpson obtained his undergraduate and law degree from Stanford. (13:19-20:17)... While in college, Simpson's mother rented an office at the bank building located on Pine and First, where she lived and supported herself as a Christian Science practitioner. During the summers, Simpson returned to Long Beach and worked odd jobs doing janitorial or maintenance work. He also worked as an assistant clerk at the Deluxe Hotel located on Ocean and Locust. One summer, he was hired as a carpenter's assistant at Craig's Shipyard. During his senior year at Stanford, he worked as a night clerk at the Alexander Hotel located on First and Locust. His earnings and a small scholarship helped pay for his first year of law school, after which he received another scholarship. (20:17-21:31)... Several options were available to students pursuing their law degrees at Stanford. Simpson decided to get his BA and then study 2 more years for his Juris Doctorate. (21:31-29:15)... During his last year in law school, Simpson returned to Long Beach and interned at the law firm of Denio and Hart. His responsibilities included filing court documents and doing law research for which he earned 50 dollars a month. At that time, there were no superior courts in Long Beach and all proceedings were handled in Los Angeles. The only court in Long Beach at that time was a Justice of the Peace. This court handled misdemeanor cases and small claims. Neither the Justice of the Peace nor the people who appeared before him had to be attorneys. After Simpson graduated from law school, he was hired at Denio and Hart; it was the only firm he ever worked for. Neither Denio nor Hart had any formal legal training. Elon Carlton Denio became the Southern Pacific Railroad's representative in Long Beach. George Hart was his partner. (29:15-30:03)... When SImpson first began working at Denio and Hart, the firm was the special counsel for the City of Long Beach in annexation strip cases. End of tape. *** File: cbmsimpson2.mp3 (0:00-2:53)... Long Beach couldn't annex land north of the city because residents there would vote against it. So the city annexed a strip of land around the limits of the land they thought they wanted to annex in the future to keep other cities from trying to annex it. Other cities didn't like this and litigated against Long Beach. Simpson attended the trials and wrote the briefs when cases went to appeal. He also handled the "incidental" legal work involved with the other corporations and businesses the firm represented in the city, including Craig's Shipbuilding. (2:53-7:34)... The Law Firm of Denio and Hart represented the Bixbys and Craig's Shipbuilding until a dispute arose between one of the Bixbys and John F. Craig. When Denio refused to drop Craig as a client, he lost the Bixby business. O'Melveny's firm represented the Jotham Bixby Company and served on its board until his death, at which time Simpson replaced him as a director of the company. Jotham Bixby Company, Bixby Land Company and the Alamitos Land Company were all owned and operated by different sets of Bixby relatives. Simpson began representing the Alamitos Land Company following the death of the company's lawyer, Sherman Anderson. At that time, Simpson assumed the vice presidency of the Alamitos Land Company and eventually assumed that post for the Bixby Land Company. (7:34-16:06)... In addition to serving on the board of directors of the Bank of Long Beach, Denio and his law firm represented the bank. His director's fee was a 20 dollar gold piece. The bank was taken over by Security Bank and when they constructed their new building in 1925, Denio and Hart occupied one end of the fifth floor. Shortly after Simpson joined the firm, he was made a partner and the firm's name was changed to Denio, Hart, Taubman & Simpson. When Denio and Hart died, the firm changed its name to Taubman, Simpson, Young & Eckert. In 1982, the firm moved to a new location on Ocean Boulevard and changed names once again to Taubman, Simpson, Young & Sulentor. Simpson left the firm in 1975 when he turned 75, an age of retirement stipulated by the partners. Simpson and George Taubman were the firm's first partners with law school degrees at the time they were made partners. Simpson believes that California was a "pioneer" frontier in the 1880s when Denio and Hart were learning law and law degrees were not required. However, he believes that other states required law degrees because his grandfather attended and received a law degree from the University of Michigan shortly after the Civil War. (16:06-17:59)... The "Branch Court" was established in Long Beach as the city's first superior court. The court was located on Pacific and First Street before moving into the Jergens Trust Building. The first presiding judge of that court was Ralph Clock, a senior partner in the prominent law firm, Clock, Waestman and Clock. Clock retired when he became a political "big shot" after helping Frank Merriam obtain the governorship of California. (17:59-20:18)... The Depression in Long Beach started around 1927 when people began defaulting on real estate loans granted by Security Bank. Most of the subdivisions north of Wardlow, such as Chateau Theirry and Bixby Knolls, were sold on conditional sales contracts in which the property and the title was held by the bank. After 1927, most of Simpson's law work involved "quiet title actions," legal action to clear the defaulted titles for the bank. (20:18-22:33)... When oil was discovered on Signal Hill in 1921, Simpson was working as a night clerk at the Alexander Hotel. He remembers oil workers coming in from Texas and staying at the hotel. Although initially confined to the hill, oil development extended out as far as the Los Cerritos area and into subdivisions like Chateau Theirry. A vast majority of his law work involved clearing titles and drawing up oil leases. The perception that lawyers only dealt with criminal work was false. Throughout his own career he only practiced business law. (22:33-24:05)... Darrell Neighbors worked in the Property Department in Long Beach at the Security bank. Neighbors and Simpson worked on foreclosures and getting people to vacate property. The Depression in real estate, at least, began in 1927 and lasted into the 1940s. (24:05-30:09)... The 1933 earthquake was devastating for the residents of Long Beach. George Hart lowned some building on Anaheim Road that was shaken down, as well as his home on Ocean Boulevard. Accept for the Alamitos Land Company, most of the Bixby land companies were hit hard during the earthquake. The "hoof and mouth" disease had previously affected the Bixby Land Company's dairy business in east Long Beach. The company hired Japanese farmers to cultivate the land formerly used for dairy production. When the US entered WWII, the Bixby Land Company suffered difficulties once again when its Japanese farmers were interned. The Bixby Land Company eventually was forced to sell the 4000 acres of land it held in east Long Beach. Most of this land was sold in 100-acre plots to farmers for about $100,000 per plot. Cadwallader and Company was asked by Security bank to help manage the sale of this Bixby property. End of tape. *** File: cbmsimpson3.mp3 (0:00-1:46)... At the same time Bixby Land Company was selling some of its property in east Long Beach, the Jotham Bixby Company was selling its property as well. The Amelia M. E. Bixby Company was a holding company that held stock in all of the Bixby land companies, as well as the Long Beach Dock and Terminal Company. Simpson remembers that the Bixbys involved with Jotham Bixby Company were different from the Bixbys associated with Bixby Land Company. The side of the family that descended from Llewellyn Bixby were "superior" to the others. (1:46-3:20)... He cannot recall when the courts were built in Long Beach. The courts were housed in the Jergens Trust Building before they were moved into the City Hall. Most of the law firms in the city were located in what is now the Security bank building or across the street "under the clock" or along Long Beach Boulevard in the Pacific Southwest building that was later known as the Times building. (3:20-7:01)... Simpson's law firm represented the city of Huntington Beach in oil matters involving the city and the state. In 1930, the firm represented C. J. Kubach and Company, a contractor involved in construction Pier 1 in the outer harbor, when that firm sued the City of Long Beach. When the steel pilling on the project Kubach was building failed, they blamed the city, which had supplied the pillings. The city attorney was George Trammel, who was assisted by Charles Windham, the son of one of the early city managers. Kubach also sued the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company, represented by Bruce Mason, for its work on setting up the pilings for the pier. By suing the dredging company, his firm forced that company to defend themselves and provide information that showed that the steel pilings provided by the city were defective. That how he won the case. (7:01-11:19)... Simpson's firm was involved in litigation over oil leases in the Wilmington area. There were some lots there that were only 50 feet square and some of those small lots had their own oil wells. In the 1930s, however, there were new regulations that limited the number of oil well that could be drilled per acre. His firm also represented Craig's Shipbuilding in litigation against Signal Oil and Gas. They were pumping lots of oil out from under Craig's property, but subsidence in the area was destroying the shipbuilding equipment. The oil leases that Drnio had drawn protected the property owners, even though they were profiting from oil production. As a defensive move, the oil companies hired Stanford University to provide research and documentation that subsidence was not caused by oil drilling. Simpson and JIm Craig had both gone to Stanford and were unhappy that Stanford did such a thing. Even though the oil companies denied that drilling caused subsidence, Simpson and his firm were successful in gaining a settlement from Signal Oil and Gas. (11:19-14:41)... The Mallon case involving tidelands occurred because of a poor legal decision made by the city attorney's office. A previous tidelands case was litigated in San Diego in which the California Supreme Court ruled that if oil revenue was not necessary for tidelands development, you could siphon money off. The Long Beach City Attorney decided to file a similar case without recognizing that judges change their minds and the law changes. Simpson believes the city attorney should have asked for help from outside counsel. The court ruled that Long Beach's oil revenue wasn't necessary for tidelands use. This "affirmative action" on behalf of the city made it possible for the state to get more control over tidelands revenue. Frosty Martin often "shot his mouth off" about the tidelands, which brought even more attention to the city. (14:41-16:42)... Simpson was not involved in political activities throughout his career. He talks about Darrell Neighbors' commitment to dealing with subsidence. One solution has come in the form of pumping high pressure water underground that has both prevented subsidence and increased oil production. However, Neighbors and others fear, at the time of the interview, that once the oil dries up and the water stops being pumped in, Long Beach will encounter some major problems. (16:42-21:35)... Outside of work, Simpson was a member of Kiwanis until he retired from the legal profession. He also was active in the church. He was raised as a Methodist and then became a Christian Scientistuntil he began attending Stanford University. He did not attend church again until his children were born. For many years, he presided as a church elder and trustee of the First Presbyterian Church. He began to view himself as a hypocrite because he did not believe the words he spoke at Communion. He also became dismayed with the church because he found that church people often "do things in the name of the Lord that a good, honest businessman would not do." (21:35-27:25)... Simpson and his wife married in 1932 in the "midst of the Depression." They purchased a three bedroom home in Belmont Shores for 6,000 dollars. They sold their home in 1934-35 for only 3,500 dollars. At the time, Simpson was representing Jotham Bixby Company and some of the company's property in Bixby Knolls was in default so Simpson could pick any lot he wanted. He purchased a lot and a half at 4455 Myrtle. His home was designed by Kenneth Wing and cost 7,500 dollars to build. His family lived there for 30 years. His children attended Longfellow, Hughes, and Poly High School. His Bixby Knolls home sold for 300,000 dollars in 1967, giving him a profit of 55,000 dollars. (27:25-31:35)... Simpson remembers downtown Long Beach before the breakwater was put in. The waves crashing against the Pine Avenue Pier were beautiful. He supports the redevelopment of the downtown area because he feels that "it needed something." The Jotham Bixby Company owned the land where Bixby Knoll shopping center was built.r End of tape. *** File: cbmsimpson4.mp3 (0:00-3:46)... Jotham Bixby Company had a lot of financial problems. The company had lots of debts and Security Bank "carried" the company during difficult times. The company was forced to sell some of its property during the Depression. That property that is worth millions at the time of the interview. Property values have risen so much in Long Beach that it's hard for young people to buy homes. (3:46-11:52)... Simpson did not have any dealings with Fred Bixby. At the time of the interview, Long Beach had recently lost an inverse condemnation suit over a piece of property on a bluff above the beach. The property had earlier been owned by the Alamitos Land Company. When Llewellyn Bixby took over the company, he proposed buliding a beautiful 1 story restaurant on it but the city refused to give the company a permit. So Alamitos Land Company exchanged the property for acreage in Imperial Valley. The next owner also failed to get a bulding permit and lost the property. Finally, it came to by owned by Mark Taper who sued the city for inverse condemnation. Taper argued that the city couldn't continue to collect taxes on the property and then refuse to let it be developed. Simpson thinks the city was dishonest in they way they handled this situtation. (11:52-13:16)... Simpson hopes that the city won't take money for the fund that is set aside to deal with subsidence once all of the oil is pumped out from under Long Beach harbor area. He believes that subsidence will again become a problem in the city, although not in his lifetime. (13:16-14:17)... Even though Simpson believes that some buildings in downtown Long Beach warrant restoration, people have gone a little "crazy" in wanting to restore buildings that have no real importance. End of tape.
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